Urban Bush Women/Compagnie Jant-Bi

African-derived dance can conjure raw emotions in a way that European idioms rarely do: A chest quivers to a drum beat. The movement grows to a throb, mimicking a pounding heart. Then it pulsates harder. And bigger. And within seconds the dancer’s whole body is a waving frenzy.

Watching the build-up — this expression of pure physicality — you can’t help but feel the joy. Or the anger or the pain, depending on the music and what’s happening with the dancer’s head, arms and feet.

A moment like this from The scales of memory has stuck with me for a few hours now.

So have other elements of the new collaboration between New York’s Urban Bush Women and Senegal’s Compagnie Jant-Bi — which was presented at the Wortham Theater Cneter Saturday by Society for the Performing Arts. Their work together looks seamless — unabashedly modern but infused with a traditional African vocabulary.

In the first scene the dancers state their names and rattle off the names of their parents, grandparents and great-grandparents. They also recite the words, “I accept.” This suggests the theme of generational identity.

But it’s not about individuals. We don’t see the dancers as ‘themselves’ again until the end of the show, when a bookending device revisits that opening scene. What unfolds in the middle is a fascinating pastiche of dances based on collective memory — suggesting history’s impact on African and African-American culture.

But The scales of memory isn’t a history lesson. It’s timeless and dreamy. The fabulously complex music and sound score have a lot to do with this. In addition to several compositions by Fabrice Bouillon-LaForest and Frederic Bobin (some for guitar, some for keyboards, berimbau, percussion and vocals), the musical mix included vocals by Christine King, drumming by the Drummers of Senegal’s L’Ecole des Sables, poetry by Rumi and atmospheric sounds evoking the ocean, the underbelly of a slave ship and jungles teeming with wild things.

The scales of memory is also utterly earthly. There’s an abundance of gutteral sounds, rhythmic foot stomping and wide-legged stuff. It’s got some tender-funny, humanistic touches too: in one dance, men and women flash their underpants with a speedy manner that’s both flirty and no-nonsense.

The regal, Urban Bush Women veteran Nora Chipaumire — a native of Zimbabwe — was a mesmerizing presence, both as a queen-turned-slave and as a coy maiden. Catherine Denecy was a live wire in a sexy duet.

Compagnie Jant-Bi’s Babacar Ba and Pape Ibrahima Ndiaya (Kaolack) were standouts. And Abib Sow, in a zenlike solo with a rock, also performed powerfully.

Urban Bush Women founder and choreographer Jawole Willa Jo Zollar spoke to the audience after the show, along with the 14 dancers — who looked astoundingly refreshed after performing for an hour and a half.